Decentralized formation control with connectivity maintenance and collision avoidance under limited and intermittent sensing

Teng-Hu Cheng, Zhen Kan, Joel A. Rosenfeld, Warren E. Dixon

Abstract: A decentralized switched controller is developed for dynamic agents to perform global formation configuration convergence while maintaining network connectivity and avoiding collision within agents and between stationary obstacles, using only local feedback under limited and intermittent sensing. Due to the intermittent sensing, constant position feedback may not be available for agents all the time. Intermittent sensing can also lead to a disconnected network or collisions between agents. Using a navigation function framework, a decentralized switched controller is developed to navigate the agents to the desired positions while ensuring network maintenance and collision avoidance.